Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines

All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Report on California Workers’ Comp Shows 227 Medical Providers Suspended

Mar 26 2018 // The California Department of Industrial Relations on Monday issued a progress report on its anti-fraud efforts, including updates on the suspension of 227 medical providers from treating California’s injured workers...

How Trump Policies Contribute to Dire Scenario for Workers’ Compensation

Mar 26 2018 // At a time when the nation’s workers’ compensation system is facing an aging workforce and a pending widespread labor shortage, federal policies on immigration and health insurance promise to exacerbate these...

Revamp of Kentucky Workers’ Comp System Gets OK From State Senate

Mar 26 2018 // Kentucky lawmakers are closing in on making the biggest changes to the workers’ compensation system in decades after the Senate passed the measure on Thursday. The legislation – backed by business groups but...

Ohio Manufacturer Agrees to $1M Penalty for Health, Safety Violations

Mar 23 2018 // An Ohio auto parts manufacturer has agreed to a settlement that includes a $1 million penalty resulting from workplace health and safety violations, federal safety officials said. The U.S. Department of Labor’s...

Appalachian Underwriters Adds Saunders to Workers’ Comp Team in Florida

Mar 22 2018 // Appalachian Underwriters, Inc. has added Workers’ Compensation Underwriter, Lilyana ‘Lili’ Saunders, to the Sanford, Fla office. She will be writing small comp accounts, as well as building relationships...

Outlooks Revised to Stable for Louisiana’s Stonetrust Commercial Insurance

Mar 21 2018 // A.M. Best has revised the outlooks to stable from negative and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb” of workers’ compensation insurer,...

Keating Adds Workers’ Comp Team in Pennsylvania and Massaschusetts

Mar 21 2018 // Keating Inc., a specialty property and casualty insurance distribution company in the U.S., has hired Tim Palmer as a national managing partner within its workers’ compensation practice. Palmer brings with him a team...

Service Insurance Holdings Acquires Oklahoma’s American Healthcare Indemnity

Mar 20 2018 // Service Insurance Holdings Inc. (SIHI), parent of Texas-based workers’ compensation insurer, Service Lloyds Insurance Co., has acquired American Healthcare Indemnity Co. (AHIC), an Oklahoma-based insurer. The new...

California Workers’ Compensation Institute Elects 2018 Board

Mar 19 2018 // Rose Barrett of the Berkshire Hathaway Group was elected chair of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute board of directors for 2018. Barrett was first elected to the CWCI board as a representative of AIG in...

Barred Video Leads Texas High Court to Toss Finding in Workers’ Comp Suit

Mar 19 2018 // Disagreeing with the decision of a lower court to exclude, without having watched it, a company’s surveillance video of an injured employee in a workers’ compensation case, the Texas Supreme Court reversed the...

Maine’s The MEMIC Group Promotes Carmody to Northeast Claims Director

Mar 16 2018 // Workers’ compensation specialist The MEMIC Group has promoted Michael Carmody to claims director of the northeast region, which includes MEMIC’s New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York offices. Carmody began...

Good News on Opioid Usage for a Change – it’s Down in California Workers’ Comp

Mar 14 2018 // Efforts to curb the use of opioids in California’s workers’ compensation system appear to be paying off. New research from the California Workers’ Compensation Institute on prescription drugs used to...

California OKs Workplace Rule to Protect Hotel Housekeepers

Mar 14 2018 // California has adopted a new workplace safety and health regulation designed to reduce work-related injuries to housekeepers in the hotel and hospitality industry. This is the first ergonomic standard in the nation written...

California Workers’ Comp Medical Review Volume Fell Slightly in 2017

Mar 14 2018 // New data on the Independent Medical Review process used to resolve California workers’ compensation medical disputes show that IMR volume dipped for the first time ever in 2017, but the outcomes were unchanged as IMR...

Commercial Insurance Prices Were Up Only Slightly in Q4

Mar 13 2018 // Prices for overall commercial insurance lines in the U.S. inched upward in the fourth quarter of 2017, although workers’ compensation and directors and officers liability prices actually declined and commercial auto...

Study: California Workers Not Weaned Off Opioids Had Much Higher Drug Costs

Mar 9 2018 // Injured workers who were not weaned off of opioids had much higher drug costs and higher treatment transaction volumes, according to a report released on Friday by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating...

Barred Video Leads Texas Court to Reverse Jury Finding in Workers’ Comp Suit

Mar 8 2018 // The Texas Supreme Court has disagreed with the decision of a lower court to exclude, without having watched it, a company’s surveillance video of an injured employee in a workers’ compensation case. Because it...

Longer-Term Opioid Prescriptions Increases Lost Work Time: WCRI Study

Mar 8 2018 // Using prescribed opioids adds significant time to temporary disability taken by workers with work-related lower back injuries, according to a new industry study. Temporary disability is time that workers spend away from...

Tennessee Workers’ Comp Bureau Launches Online Filing System

Mar 8 2018 // The Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has begun using a new online filing system. A news release says the TNComp system lets attorneys and self-represented litigants file without printing copies or traveling...

ICW Group Expands Workers’ Comp Coverage Into 5 New States

Mar 8 2018 // ICW Group Insurance Companies, a group of property and casualty carriers, is now writing workers’ compensation insurance in five new primary states — Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota and Missouri, the...